What if there is a god?

Has anyone here every thought about what if there happened to be a god. It doesn't really matter what god or what religion just if there is one. When you die what do you think they/him/her would say and how you would react? If they were a god that passed judgment, do you think that they would understand your reasons for not believing and forgive you or would they punish you without question?

I was raised Christian and while I don't believe anything they say, the above still crosses my mind quite often. I'm a musician and I get a lot of gigs playing for church services, especially around Christmas and Easter. It's hard not to listen to the sermon and try to understand their way of thinking during these times and these questions always pop into my mind during and after the service.

If you ask yourself those questions then, One I think you might just have too much time on your hands, and two, Asking questions, even about the possiblilty of the existence of these creatures, is on par with asking questions on if the fictional book is real.

Tell me, do you also wonder what is like to be a character in a video game? Or how to leap tall buildings in a single bound? Or how to grow fangs, turn into a bat, and drink the blood of your fellow humans?

If you ask 'If I were . . . ' to yourself, then yes, you are showing a small amount of belief in the creatures, because for you to imagine yourself as that creature you must believe--even a small bit--in them.

> because for you to imagine yourself as that creature you must believe--even a small bit--in them.

What an utter load of rubbish. What about fantasy/sci-fi authors? What about role-playing games? What about actors? It's positively insulting for you to suggest that just because a person enjoys pretending, they can't separate fantasy from reality.

Interesting point. The imagination serves a useful purpose in that it is a mechanism for filling in blanks making the very mundane situation of constantly having to make decisions without complete information possible.

It is only when we can't tell imagination from information that we get in trouble. So, yes, compartmentalization is necessary. But Dawkins talks about compartmentalizing beliefs which is different from compartmentalizing information from speculation.

Since the traits/hobbies I mentioned are some which are built on imagination (yet there are hoardes of skeptics and atheists amongst them), I see no reason to think there's a problem. Unless I misunderstand your point, which may be the case, because it seems very vague from here.

"Tell me, do you also wonder what is like to be a character in a video game? Or how to leap tall buildings in a single bound? Or how to grow fangs, turn into a bat, and drink the blood of your fellow humans?"

Yes, yes, and yes.

In fact, there's an entire group here on A/N devoted to those of us who apparently can't tell fantasy from reality.

Or can we?

- Jo; Wondering tonight, "What if the recent Star Trek remake were real and I could get Mr Sulu alone on Planet Seduction in the Turbulent Ocean of Hot Tubs?"